Murder trial enters fourth week

Disabled Featherston man Glen Jones died from an “extremely violent and brutal attack” targeting his head, a Wellington jury has been told.

The Crown is making its final address in the High Court at Wellington at the trial of four people charged with murdering Mr Jones, 40.

The supermarket worker was killed in a vigilante attack because a woman had accused him of rape.

Crown Prosecutor Grant Burston said the trial was not about whether the rape claim was true or not. However it was the reason for, and context of, the group attack on Mr Jones.

The woman who made the claim, whose name was suppressed, was not a witness at the trial which entered its fourth week today.

Mr Jones had disabilities as a result of the treatment for a brain tumour as a toddler.

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In the early hours of January 12, last year, he was beaten to death in his flat.

Mr Burston said it was an extremely violent and brutal killing.

The Crown says that two men - Kristofer Lee Jones, 24, and Hayden Ranson, 28 - had wooden bats and were guilty of having murdered Mr Jones. His head was targeted with legal force that left him lying on a carpet soaked with his blood, Mr Burston said.

Ambulance staff revived Mr Jones but he died in Wellington Hospital within five hours of the attack.

The Crown says Matthew John McKinney, 29, and Tariana Hineteanaurangi Jones, 34, were also guilty of murder, but as parties, for having helped and encouraged the other two. Mr Burston said McKinney lead the group and Tariana Jones was the instigator.

The four who went into the flat knew that weapons were involved, that someone could go overboard and there was a real risk that Mr Jones might die, Mr Burston said.

The jury is now down to 11. One woman was discharged finding she knew someone connected with the case, the judge said.

The jury is expected to begin considering its verdicts on about Wednesday.

Ranson and McKinney have pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, but they, Tariana Jones and Kristofer Jones have pleaded not guilty of murder.

The jury was told that the woman who accused Glen Jones of rape had been drinking and took a prescription painkiller before going to his flat about two months before he was killed. She later told police that she did not remember what happened but she thought Mr Jones, who she knew, had raped her.

Mr Jones told his mother afterwards that he and the woman were ‘together’. Mr Jones and the woman were seen kissing and cuddling the morning after the alleged rape and had consensual intercourse at least once afterwards.